With her rural background and overly zealous bible-thumping father, outsider Jennifer Baylor (Pelikan) is shunned by her fellow students at the upper crust Green View girls school.

The fact that Jennifer has an unnatural "connection" to all kinds of live snakes - the ability to hold them, to make the slimy things do her bidding - well, that doesn't exactly endear her to her new hoighty-toighty friends either.